Petition
Ceasefire and the state of Palestine
(Glasgow East) (SNP)
Last month I was honoured to join worshippers for Friday prayers
at Hillview Islamic centre in Shettleston, who expressed their
horror at the humanitarian crisis that sadly is unfolding in
Gaza. I stand in solidarity with their calling on the Government
to call a ceasefire now. The petitioners therefore request
“that the House of Commons urges the Government to join with
others in the international community in urgently pressing all
parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire, and to call on the UK
Government to recognise the state of Palestine alongside the
state of Israel ”
Following is the full text of the petition:
[To the House of Commons.
The Petition of residents of the constituency of Glasgow
East,
Declares that the attacks by Hamas on Israel on
7th October 2023 were acts of terror, and unequivocally condemns
the taking of hostages and the loss of innocent lives in those
attacks; further that the petitioners condemn the
disproportionate response of the Israel Defence
Forces, and affirms that there must be an end to the collective
punishment of the Palestinian people; further declares for the
urgent release of all hostages and an end to the siege of Gaza to
allow vital supplies of food, fuel, medicine and water to reach
the civilian population; further declares support for the calls
by the United Nations and many other international actors for an
immediate ceasefire on all sides of the conflict and supports the
global consensus in support of a two-state solution with a
sovereign, prosperous Palestinian state, living side by side with
a safe and secure Israel and notes the
resolution of the House of Commons on 13th October 2014 calling
on the UK Government to recognise the state of Palestine
alongside the state of Israel
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges
the Government to join with others in the international community
in urgently pressing all parties to agree to an immediate
ceasefire, and to call on the UK Government to recognise the
state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel ]
End of business
adjournment debate on Support for Civilians Fleeing Gaza
(Glenrothes) (SNP)
I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak briefly on the
plight of innocent civilians in Gaza, although it breaks my heart
that the debate is necessary. About 1.8 million people are
trapped in Gaza right now. Almost all of them are multiple
internal refugees, who have been forced to flee their homes
elsewhere in Gaza and again several times, as places that were
promised would be safe soon became anything but.
I do not want to go into the arguments about the legality or
illegality, morality or immorality of what is happening there,
and what has happened previously in Israel
Those debates have to continue, but I want to use this
opportunity to ask what steps the UK Government are taking to
save the lives of people who are in mortal danger. To no one’s
surprise, I will suggest that they are not doing nearly
enough.
We have already seen more than 27,000 deaths in Gaza, mostly
women and children. The vast majority are completely innocent
civilians who have never wished any harm on anyone. There is a
real and imminent danger that that horrific death toll will
increase exponentially if, as still seems likely, the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency is forced to stop or
significantly scale down its lifesaving work in Gaza. People are
already dying not just because of military action but because
essential supplies of food, water and medicines are not getting
through in sufficient quantities.
(Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch
and Strathspey) (SNP)
My hon. Friend is making a powerful start to his speech. He
mentioned the innocent civilians who are being subjected to
horrendous conditions. My constituent Dr Salim Ghayyda has 40
family members living day by day, trying to avoid death, the
horrendous circumstances, and everything else that people have to
put up with there. Is it not about time that the UK Government
put in a scheme, even for relatives of UK citizens, to get them
safe harbour away from the atrocities that they face every
day?
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. Many of our constituents
have hardly slept for months, because they never know when they
are going to get the phone call telling them of the death of a
relative, or in some cases, the deaths of five, 10 or 15
relatives at the same time. It is an unimaginable worry for
people to be living with.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I commend the hon. Member for bringing forward this debate, on a
subject we all have in our mind. Does he agree that the most
vulnerable people under attack in Gaza need a clear path to
safety? Will he join me in urging the neighbouring nations also
to step up their efforts to welcome refugees with open arms? Does
he further agree that our Government should be ensuring that we
do all we can to make sure that aid gets to the people who
clearly need it the most?
I do not disagree with anything the hon. Gentleman said, although
I would point out that some of the neighbouring countries are
hosting between 1 million and 2 million refugees from Syria. That
is why this is a global problem; the whole world has to take
action.
(York Central)
(Lab/Co-op)
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate. A
constituent of mine is a Palestinian international student at
university in York. His family remain in Gaza, and he is
desperate for his children to join him, yet the Government have
not opened up an opportunity or a scheme to bring his family to
him. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the humanitarian thing
for this Government to do is to open up visa opportunities for
families to be reunited?
Absolutely. I think the message emerging is that this situation
is affecting significant numbers of people in the United Kingdom.
A large number of our constituents have close family members who
are in mortal danger. We cannot stand by and then wonder
afterward why some did not survive.
Lives have been lost because aid has not always got through in
time, and certainly not in sufficient quantities. If UNRWA has to
scale down significantly, or even stop its activities, the
situation will worsen—250 deaths a day is bad enough; it could
get unimaginably worse. It is no exaggeration to say that if we
do not start to act soon, we could see more civilian deaths in
Gaza than there were in Rwanda in 1994. Gaza could become the new
Rwanda. Regardless of what terminology people choose to use to
describe the actions of the various warring factions in and
around Palestine, regardless of the terminology used to describe
what is being done to innocent civilians, and regardless of who
we choose to point the finger of blame at, it is not tenable to
suggest that we can stand back and let today’s figure of tens of
thousands of preventable deaths grow into hundreds of thousands,
or even more.
Part of the response has to be to get people out of harm’s way as
quickly and in as large numbers as possible. What I am asking the
Government to do, as a first step, is something that I know for a
fact other countries have already done, so let us not pretend
that it is something the Government cannot do. First, where
civilians in Gaza have close family members in the United
Kingdom, the UK Government should, at the very least, be
negotiating safe passage for them to get out of Gaza. Secondly,
the Government should be guaranteeing their right to come to the
United Kingdom and join their families, not necessarily
permanently—that is not what Palestinians want—but as a
short-term, emergency measure, to keep them safe until their
homeland, the land they want to return to, is once more safe and
fit for human habitation. I appreciate that is not palatable to
some Government Members, but the alternative is far less
palatable.
I have referred to my constituent Dr Lubna Hadoura several times
in this Chamber. She came here as a student, like the constituent
the hon. Member for York Central () mentioned, but she liked
Scotland so much that she stayed. She has given over 30 years—her
entire adult lifetime—of service to our NHS as a consultant
surgeon, most of it in Fife. She has probably saved the lives of
many of my constituents. She has about 20 close relatives living
under bombardment in Gaza, ranging from her elderly mum to two
babies too wee even to walk. Dr Hadoura loves living in Fife.
Most of her family have no intention of coming to live
permanently in Fife, or indeed anywhere else in the United
Kingdom. They want to live their lives in Palestine; that is home
for them. But most important of all, they want to live, and
living is becoming almost physically impossible in Gaza.
I make a particular appeal given Dr Hadoura’s outstanding
contribution to her adopted country. We owe her, and I think that
even getting her mum out to safety constitutes only a fraction of
that debt. Most of the Members who are present have already made
similar appeals on behalf of their constituents’ families,
but—this is only my personal view—I do not think that we should
be stopping at people with families in the UK. I do not think
that we should knowingly leave anyone to die, but sadly I hold
out little hope of the Government’s willingness to go as far as
that this evening.
(Edinburgh South West)
(SNP)
I wanted to add my voice to that of my hon. Friend, because, as
he knows, his constituent has a sister who is my constituent, and
who has also given many years’ service to the NHS. That family
are in a position to financially support any relatives who might
come from Gaza to the UK temporarily.
I agree with my hon. Friend that as well as considering families
like those of our constituents, we should have a wider
humanitarian visa. In the last few months there have been nearly
twice as many civilian deaths in Gaza as in Ukraine. What
difference does my hon. Friend think there is between the
position of the Gazans and that of the Ukrainians that is
preventing the British Government from issuing a humanitarian
visa?
I can only speculate on what the Government’s thinking might be.
I see no difference whatsoever, and I refuse to accept any
distinction between any two human beings who are in mortal
danger. We do not expect firefighters to check bank accounts or
passports before deciding who is to be taken out of a burning
building. We do not expect ambulance crews to check who someone
is before deciding in which order to treat casualties after a
road accident, although some people do. We certainly do not
expect to see the heroes who man—and woman—lifeboats stopping to
check people’s identities before deciding whether to pull them
out of the sea. In the same way, we should not be making
distinctions between those who should be allowed to live in the
United Kingdom and those who should be left to die in Gaza or
anywhere else, but sadly, as I have said, I do not think we will
see that amount of movement from the Government today or at any
time. So far, they have refused even to meet me to listen to the
moral, humanitarian and imperative case for letting Dr Hadoura’s
elderly mum survive, letting the rest of her family survive, and
letting as many of those 1.8 million people as possible
survive.
The most recent reply that I received from the Foreign,
Commonwealth and Development Office was very sympathetic, very
apologetic and utterly, utterly dismissive. It would be easy to
look at that letter and think that it had been written by someone
who genuinely could not care less about the plight of
Palestinians right now. I do not think that that is a correct
description of anyone in the Foreign Office, but that is the
impression that the letter gave my constituent.
(Warwick and Leamington)
(Lab)
I thank the hon. Member for initiating this important debate. I
too have encountered issues involving several constituents.
Surprisingly, there do not seem to be that many—I think that
three have written to me—so I do not think there is a huge number
that the Government should be concerned about. However, these are
family members who are contributing to the UK economy. My
constituents Rami Alfaqani and Alaa Safi have lost 52 members of
their family, and another family member needs urgent medical
intervention. That is why we should do the humanitarian and right
thing for those people.
The hon. Member is right to talk of doing the humanitarian and
right thing. I would suggest that the situation in Gaza has
become so critically desperate that the humanitarian response is
the only one that can be morally tenable for any of us.
I said that the letter from the Foreign Office was dismissive,
and I am sorry to have to say that it was also less than 100%
honest. In a letter that was one and a half pages long, the
writer talked eight times about what the Foreign Office could and
could not do. Let me say again to the Minister that I am not
asking the UK Government to do anything that they cannot do. I am
not asking them to do anything except what I know other
countries, including some of our closest international allies,
have already done for the families of their citizens to get them
out of Gaza. For the Foreign Office, it is not a question of “We
cannot do anything more”, but a question of “We choose not to do
anything more”, and I think that that is an untenable position
for anyone to adopt at this time.
(Glasgow Central)
(SNP)
My hon. Friend is making some excellent points, and I share his
frustrations, having also written to the Foreign Secretary on
this issue on behalf of my constituent, Sama, whose family have
been evacuated six times. A recent Israel Defence Forces
bombardment destroyed the family home, which took them 30 years
to build. Does my hon. Friend agree that there needs to be some
route for families in that situation? At the moment, Sama has no
answers from this Government and there is no way of getting her
family to safety.
I agree with my hon. Friend’s comments. One thing that is causing
immeasurable upset to my constituent, Dr Hadoura, and to many
other Palestinians in the United Kingdom is that they are in
contact with Palestinian families in other countries and seeing
them getting their loved ones out of Palestine. They know that
the UK Government say that they cannot do anything about it, but
they see other countries’ Governments being able to do something.
Those Governments might have reasons for not wanting to publicise
it or for it to be too widely known, but they are willing to go
beyond the legal minimum to get people out and reunited with
their families.
The last letter I got from the Foreign Office Minister finished
by saying:
“ I recognise this will be disappointing news”—
disappointing? Disappointing?—
“but wanted to relay it as soon as possible, so that your
constituent can take informed decisions about his family’s next
steps.”
Incidentally, it was clear in my letter that Dr Hadoura was a
she, not a he. That made me convinced that this was a
cut-and-paste job from another letter and that they had not even
bothered to tailor it to the individual constituent. And relaying
it to me “as soon as possible” meant sending me a letter two
months after I had contacted the Minister. By contrast, on Friday
last week, within the space of about two hours, my office had two
emails and two phone calls from the Foreign Office wanting to
know what today’s debate was about. What does that tell us about
its priorities? That it was more urgent to sort out which
Minister would respond to the debate than to agree to meet
Members of Parliament to try and find a way of stopping people
dying unnecessarily.
But it was the bit after that in the letter that I found callous
beyond belief: it had been sent so that my constituent, Dr
Hadoura, could take “informed decisions” about her “family’s next
steps”. Precisely what decisions are available to Dr Hadoura, to
her family and to the 1.8 million others? What on earth are they
supposed to decide about? There are no options. There is no
survival plan for those families in Gaza because it is becoming
impossible for anyone to survive there. An earlier Government
response suggested that they should all apply for visas to travel
to the United Kingdom. What a really great idea! It is impossible
for them to apply for a visa in Gaza. Where are they going to
apply to? Who still has a consulate operating in Gaza? If they
try to travel somewhere else in Gaza to get a visa, there is a
very high risk that they will be shot. If by some miracle they
manage to reach the Egyptian border—remember, the only borders
they have are with Israel and Egypt—the
border guards will say, “Have you got a visa to travel somewhere
else? No? Get back to Gaza, then.” And the whole thing goes round
in a circle. They cannot get a visa without getting out of Gaza,
and they cannot get out of Gaza without a visa. The Government
fully understand that, and they are not prepared to issue visas
from here, which, as has been mentioned, they have done for
people fleeing from other parts of the world.
Dr Hadoura’s family’s only chance—and the only chance for any of
those 1.8 million people—is to be taken out of Gaza under the
protection of another Government, as some have been. They need a
Government who will negotiate safe passage for them out of Gaza.
They need a Government who will give them refuge until it is safe
for them to go back home, where they want to live out their
lives. They need a Government who will care, not only with their
words but with their actions. They need a Government who can look
at this human catastrophe with the eyes and hearts of human
beings. Within the next 15 minutes or so, we will know whether
that description can be applied to this Government.
6.49pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign,
Commonwealth and Development Affairs ()
I am grateful to the hon. Member for Glenrothes () for securing this debate and
for his thoughtful contribution. The Minister of State at the
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, my right hon.
Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), could not
be here as he is attending to other duties, but I am pleased to
respond to the debate on his behalf. I will try to cover the
points that have been raised. I will ensure that the hon. Member
for Glenrothes receives timely and accurate replies pursuant to
the specific case he raised, and I will work with officials to
make sure those responses are in good order.
All Members will agree that the situation in Gaza is desperate.
Innocent Palestinians are suffering terribly amid the substantial
and growing humanitarian crisis. The death toll has now topped
27,000, with more than 66,000 reported injured, mostly women and
children. Fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals are even partially
functional, and they lack the staff, equipment and resources they
need. Meanwhile, large numbers of people are living in
overcrowded shelters without the most basic amenities and are
suffering unthinkable trauma from the near constant bombardment.
More than 1.7 million people have fled their homes, with nearly
half of Gaza’s population packed into the southern region of
Rafah.
The hon. Gentleman asked what the United Kingdom is doing in
response to the situation, and he indicated that his view is that
we are not doing enough. Of course, there are several aspects to
the response, and I will address them in turn. He asked about
those seeking to flee Gaza. To answer his question very directly,
at this time we are not considering a bespoke route for
Palestinians affected by the conflict. Moreover, the issue of
resettling Palestinian refugees is, of course, complicated by the
right of return, which we must carefully consider. That issue is
at the heart of the middle east peace process. For many of those
fleeing Gaza, permanent resettlement to a third country is not
the right solution. Indeed, it may be the worst option for those
whose dearest hope is to live out their days in a recognised
state of Palestine. The House will know that we are a generous
nation—half a million people fleeing danger have been offered a
place in this country via a safe and legal route since 2015. But
a bespoke route is not the right solution for the current
situation.
My hon. Friend the Member for Glenrothes () was very clear that he is
looking for temporary visas because, as the Minister says,
Palestinians will of course want to return when and if it is safe
to do so. Does the Minister not think that the United Kingdom has
a particular responsibility, given the history of our involvement
in the region and the Balfour declaration?
We all have a responsibility. All developed nations have a
responsibility to ensure that the urgent humanitarian disaster in
Gaza is made less severe by our interventions. That is what we
are doing.
Right now, it is clear that we need measures to increase the
provision of humanitarian aid to help those in desperate need.
The Government are therefore focused on these efforts, alongside
our efforts to achieve a sustainable ceasefire. That is how we
will help those suffering in Gaza.
(Inverclyde) (SNP)
The Minister talks about a sustainable ceasefire, but at what
point will this Government actually call for a ceasefire?
I will come to that. We have called for a humanitarian pause and
a sustainable ceasefire. I will remark on what that means
presently, but colleagues should be aware that we have trebled
our aid to the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 7 October,
committing £60 million this financial year. This supports crucial
partners such as the British Red Cross, the UN and the Egyptian
Red Crescent Society to help civilians with food, fuel, water,
healthcare and shelter.
The Minister says there is aid provision, but it is simply not
getting through. I attended a briefing by ActionAid, among
others, this morning, and I heard that dignity packs for women
are stuck in a warehouse and not getting over the border.
Meanwhile, women are having to menstruate into bits of tent. Does
he think that is acceptable?
No, we are not satisfied that enough aid is getting through and
we are working very energetically on our diplomatic efforts to
increase the flow of aid. We need to see water, fuel and
electricity restored. We want to see the Erez crossing open to
allow direct aid to north Gaza. We want to see Ashdod port
opened. We want to see unencumbered access to aid coming from
Jordan. We want the Kerem Shalom crossing open seven days a week,
rather than just five. We want to extend the opening hours and
capacity of the Nitzana screening facility and the Kerem Shalom
checkpoint so that a greater volume of aid can pass via trucks.
We want to ensure that the United Nations has the people,
vehicles and equipment necessary. Part of getting that increased
flow of aid is about a humanitarian pause, and we are expending a
huge amount of diplomatic effort on pushing for that. The
Minister for the middle east is travelling in the region pursuant
to that this week and the Foreign Secretary will be doing the
same in the coming weeks.
Let me return to the point in question. My constituent is here
under the British Council’s scholarship scheme. He has two tiny
children and his wife in Gaza. He could not afford to bring them
over here on a visa, as he is a student, studying at the British
Council’s request. He wants to be reunited with his little
children, who have seen many of their friends and family killed.
Why will the Government not reach out to that family and allow
them safe passage so that they can be reunited?
Safe and legal routes do exist and if there is a
case—[Interruption.] The hon. Lady’s question describes elegantly
the limits of the Government’s executive capacity. Of course safe
and legal routes do exist, but the way we can have a positive
impact to set the conditions for people such as those she
mentioned is for us to push for a humanitarian pause and a
ceasefire. It is irresponsible to talk in hypotheticals
otherwise. The way the situation will be improved is for us to
achieve a humanitarian pause. For us to make rhetorical
statements that do not pertain to reality would be simply
irresponsible.
I should point out to the House—
Will the Minister give way?
No, as I must make some progress. During his visit to al-Arish in
Egypt, the Foreign Secretary met representatives from the
Egyptian Red Crescent Society, who are co-ordinating the relief
effort at the Rafah crossing. We heard how the UK’s contributions
of shelter, blankets and other vital equipment have been
providing much-needed relief to the people of Gaza, but of course
we also heard about the many constraints on the humanitarian
operations that we face. That is why our judgment is
that Israel must take steps,
working with partners, including the UN and Egypt, to
significantly increase the flow of aid. That includes allowing
prolonged humanitarian pauses; opening more routes into Gaza; and
restoring water, fuel and electricity.
The Foreign Secretary is directly engaging with Israeli leaders
on that and has announced work alongside Qatar to get more aid
into Gaza, with our joint consignment containing 17 tonnes of
tents being flown in last Thursday. When he met Prime Minister
Netanyahu at the end of January, he reiterated the need
for Israel to open more
crossing points, for Nitzana and Kerem Shalom to be open for
longer, and for Israel to support the
UN to distribute aid effectively across the whole of Gaza. We are
also continuing our work with Egypt on steps to increase
humanitarian access via the Rafah crossing.
May I take the Minister back to his comment about safe and legal
routes? Nobody can cross from Gaza to Egypt unless they have
documents that prove they have been given the right to enter a
third country, and nobody in Gaza has any way of getting such
documents. Could he just describe exactly where the safe and
legal route is and how Gazans are supposed to get there?
The only way that anyone will be able to come to safety is if
there is a humanitarian pause and a sustainable ceasefire. So
Ministers making statements about how many people we may or may
not take would be rhetorically impressive but practically
meaningless. We are therefore focused on the purposeful work and
serious diplomacy of pushing for a humanitarian pause and then a
sustainable ceasefire.
The Government want to see an end to the fighting as soon as
possible. The Foreign Secretary has worked tirelessly across the
middle east to push for a humanitarian pause and a sustainable
ceasefire. Two weeks ago, he travelled to Israel the Occupied
Palestinian Territories, Qatar and Turkey, and last week he
visited Oman, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Face-to-face talks with
leaders such as Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammed
bin Salman are invaluable in setting out UK views and
understanding the positions of countries who can help end this
conflict.
7.00pm
Motion lapsed (Standing Order No. 9(3)).
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now
adjourn.—(.)
As the Foreign Secretary has set out, we want to see an immediate
pause in the fighting to allow vital aid into Gaza and to give
space for a deal that would get the hostages out.
We are also working to turn what would be a fragile truce into a
sustainable, permanent ceasefire without a return to more
fighting. That means giving Israel the
reassurance that it needs to end its campaign. This means the
Hamas leaders must leave Gaza and the attacks
against Israel must end. All
Israeli hostages must be released and a new Palestinian
Government formed that can deliver for all its citizens,
accompanied by an international support package. It also means
giving the people of Gaza and the west bank the political
perspective of a Palestinian state and a new future.
Turning to reconstruction efforts, while the long-term future of
a Palestinian state is important for a lasting peace, there is
the immediate task of rebuilding Gaza. We should be in no doubt
that reconstruction will be a daunting task. It will take a giant
international effort because of the scale of destruction, and it
is beyond the means of any one country, so a wide coalition of
western countries, Arab and Muslim states, as well
as Israel and the
Palestinians, will be needed. Gaza will need as many people as
possible to join the effort. Building this support is another of
the Foreign Secretary’s diplomatic objectives. We will continue
to push for a humanitarian pause and a sustainable ceasefire.
I want to return the Minister to the subject of this evening’s
debate and the desperate situation that my constituent’s children
find themselves in. They cannot come to the UK unless the UK
Government give them the right to come here. The UK Government
are not giving them that right, so when will the Minister allow
those children, together with their mother, to be reunited with
their father, here in the UK?
We are seeking to improve the humanitarian situation, including
that of the individuals the hon. Lady refers to, by ensuring that
there is a de-escalation, a pause in the fighting and a
sustainable ceasefire. That is the way we will attend to the
desperate situation that affects more than those two individuals
she mentions. That is our serious purpose. Our commitment is
beyond doubt, both in resource and diplomatic effort. That is the
purposeful and sincere effort of the Foreign Secretary and the
entire Department.
Our immediate focus is on getting more aid in and securing an
immediate pause in the fighting. That is how those affected will
have their lives improved. We must do all we can to generate
momentum to build a permanent peace and rebuild Gaza.
Question put and agreed to.
